The 1995 General Conference session at Utrecht, Holland, is going to make a very important decision regarding women's ordination to the gospel ministry. The session is going to decide whether world divisions of the church can make their own decision or not on this matter. Whatever the decision, some are not going to like it. When you do not get what you want, what do you do? Should we obey the General Conference in session if we do not like what it decides?
Obedience is not a popular word in the world today. It is not popular in the political world; witness the strife in Bosnia. Many people do not want to obey the United Nations' peacekeepers. It is not popular in the business world. People hire high-priced lawyers to discover ways around government regulations. It is not popular in the entertainment world. The marriage vow seems to last as long as frost on a warm summer morning. It is not popular in schools. Metal detectors are springing up in schools to prevent kids from bringing in guns and knives. It is not popular on the streets where people run red lights with impunity. It is not popular in the church, where people chafe over policies, whether financial or moral.
However, obedience is the very foundation of law and order. Without obedience we would have anarchy. We would be living back in the days after the death of Joshua and the elders when "everyone did as he saw fit" (Judges 17:6).* When government passes laws, we are duty-bound to obey them. If I do not like the law, then I can seek to change it through the proper channels. But in the process I must obey it. The only exceptions are when government law clearly conflicts with the law of God; then obedience to God takes precedence over obedience to humans.
General Conference in session
The General Conference in its session every five years is the highest authorizing body of the church. If we do not like what it votes, then we can work through legitimate channels of the church to change the decision. But in the process we must obey what the session has voted. What is the alternative? Anarchy, disunity, conflict, and fragmentation.
Part of the struggle of living in this sinful world is living with decisions we do not like. While majorities must always be respectful of the minority, the minority cannot expect to have its way when the majority rules other wise. Either God is leading this church or not. If He is, then we need to respect the decisions made by the church in its highest governing session.
Jesus obedient
Let me give an example from the life of Jesus. Luke records that Jesus spent some time in the Temple dialoguing with the teachers when He was just 12 years old. His distraught parents finally found Him after searching for several days. He returned with them to Nazareth and was "obedient to them" (Luke 2:51). A perfect child was obedient to imperfect parents!
I wonder what it was like to parent a perfect child? I am sure that Mary and Joseph made some mistakes in their parenting of Jesus. I am sure they told Him to do some things that He may not have liked. They were prob ably not always sweet and kind to Him. Yet Jesus obeyed them. Until the age of 30 Jesus lived at home and obeyed His parents. Wonder of wonders, God in human flesh was obedient to the creatures whom He created.
His obedience was not always easy. The author of Hebrews records, "Al though he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him" (Heb. 5:8,9). His playmates may have taunted Him because He would not enter into some of their games. His parents did not always understand His mission. His brothers certainly did not.
"Jesus did not contend for His rights. Often His work was made unnecessarily severe because He was willing and uncomplaining. Yet He did not fail nor become discouraged. He lived above these difficulties, as if in the light of God's countenance. He did not retaliate when roughly used, but bore insult patiently." +
There were times when Jesus rejected tradition. He would not con form just to conform. But He never deviated from following His Father's will. Jesus obeyed the laws that He had given to Israel. He kept the law perfectly. Finally, He obeyed the unjust decisions of the Sanhedrin and Pilate's court. He died on the cross so that we might live.
His obedience saves us
It is the obedience of Jesus that saves us: "For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteousness" (Rom. 5:19). Just as the disobedience of one man, Adam, cursed us, so the obedience of one Man, Jesus, blesses us. When we accept the obedience of Christ, God transforms our lives through the new birth so that we want to become obedient to Christ. Because we love Him we want to do everything that He asks us to do.
He asks us, as members of the remnant church, to obey the church in general session. It is the highest authority in the church. This is not just a human organization; feeble as it might seem, it bears a divine imprint. We can trust the One who leads this church to act upon the hearts of the delegates to this session to make the best decision for the church at this time.
Painful as it might be, let us be obedient to Him and His church.
* All Scripture passages are from the New International Version.
+ Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages,
(Nashville: Southern Pub. Assn., 1946),
pp. 33-40.
